I have two upcoming suspension intensives; in Baltimore Sep 12-13th I'll be doing a 2-day suspension intensive, and in San Francisco Oct 3rd I'll be doing a one-day introductory suspension intensive that will be the first in a new series of suspension classes running Oct-Jan.

I know some of you have been wondering about the lack of posts here, and particularly the lack of video updates. Don't worry, more content is coming! The past few months I've been very focused on my in-person teaching efforts, as I've expanded my programs in San Francisco and begun running intensives in other cities. However, I remain committed to the CRC video curriculum as well, and hope to have time to make a new series of videos this fall. Be sure to vote for the ties you want to see on video, I'll be checking the most popular requests when putting together a filming schedule!

This coming July, I'll be running a weekend of intensives in Seattle; there will be one track for those already doing advanced rope suspension, and another for those brand new to suspension. See the full details here.

Of course, if you're in San Francisco, you can still always catch me at my weekly CRC classes, and I'll be teaching at Shibaricon next week as well.

I recently posted several videos showing a new approach to second column ties; that is, how to tie another limb into the middle of a rope. That's useful for certain hip harnesses, tying wrists together behind the back, and a variety of bedroom ties.

There's also now a video of the third variation of the Quick Shoulder Harness -- one where you tie it standing/sitting, but it's comfortable to lie back on.

In general, I'm a big fan of tying the arms in last when starting an extended scene, because then I know if the arms/hands start to have circulation/nerve issues, I can untie just the arms and reposition them without having to untie everything else. This makes everybody a lot safer, because bottoms tend to be less reluctant to mention a problem when they know it can be easily fixed and won't spell an end to play.

Of course, sometimes you want to get control of someone's hands right away. In that type of situation, one option is to do a temporary wrist tie, then re-tie the hands at the end of tying other harnesses. That way you get all the benefits of having the hands bound for the entire scene, and of being able to easily reposition them.

Introduction

While there is a variety of common wisdom regarding the effects of mechanical advantage and friction on suspension lift lines, the only published charts I'd ever seen attempting to quantitatively illustrate the subject were speculative and presented conclusions seemingly defying the laws of physics.

I've finally had some time over the past few weeks to explore this issue in more depth, first developing a mathematical model of the system, and then performing some experimental measurements to test the predictions of the model and determine the relevant coefficients of frictions. What follows are my conclusions from that work.

Lifting Force

Let us imagine you are lifting a 100 lb bottom in a single-point suspension -- or, alternately, that you are lifting 100 lb worth of the body weight of a heavier bottom (for example, lifting their hips while their chest is...

As I announced on Fetlife a few days ago, I've now finished posting all the required content to guide you through every step of performing your first rope suspension. To add that as a goal and have the system take you through everything step by step, just click this link and you'll join over 150 people already working their way through this free online course.

Do keep in mind that there's no substitute for in-person instruction, and it's always a good idea to have experienced supervision during your first few suspensions. My hope is that this material will improve the quality of information available to those without good local resources, but please don't go it alone -- if there's no expert in your area who can help guide you, at least have a couple friends with you when you're suspending to assist if you get into trouble.

This past week, I've been posting and updating a variety of articles and videos to help prepare you if you're working toward suspension.

My expanded rundown on hardpoint evaluation is a must-read for all rope suspension tops and bottoms; if you're going to be dangling from something, you really want to know that it's not going to suddenly drop you on your head.

I posted videos this week of how to tie two versions of the classic Shinju chest harness; one is a more traditional variation which makes a good first technique for beginners to learn, the other is one of my own design that is optimized for suspension.

When attaching support lines to a harness for suspension, I use a novel method that people frequently ask me about, and I've been meaning to document for a long time. Serendipitously, I ran into Kali from Kink Academy a few months ago at Wicked Grounds, and she asked me to film some instructional videos for them on suspension -- so I managed to slip this in there, and they've graciously agreed to allow me to use screenshots from those videos to illustrate a blog post here.

This method was inspired by the Tatu hitch, during a Fetlife discussion whose details are now murky in my memory -- in any case credit is due both Tatu and Jack Elfrink for making me aware of that knot, upon which this is based. Things needing names, and this technique using the first half of a Tatu hitch, I suppose we could call it the half-Tatu hitch.

Thanks also to Mecha-Kate for modeling for these. The full video version, in two parts, is here and here on Kink Academy. It's not free, but...